Suspicions of a waterbender
by mentalguru
Summary: Even after saving her life, Katara can’t help but feel paranoid whenever Zuko wants to spend time with Aang alone. No, she doesn’t think he’ll hurt him, she’s worried about a different thing entirely. Kataang/suspected Zukaang. 3/4 years post war.


**_Title: _**_Suspicions of a waterbender_

**_Rating: _**_T_

**_Genre: _**_Romance/Angst_

**_Summary: _**_Even after saving her life, Katara can't help but feel paranoid whenever Zuko wants to spend time with Aang alone. No, she doesn't think he'll hurt him, she's worried about a different thing entirely. Kataang/suspected Zukaang._

A/N: Just something I had to get out so I could concentrate on my M.I fic better. I apologise.

--

She wasn't sure when this particular feeling of intense suspicion first began. It was different from the distrust she'd first held regarding him. A part of her had always been slightly wary of Zuko regarding his intensions for Aang of course. How could she not be cautious? When they'd first met, Zuko had been obsessed with him in order to regain his honour. He'd attacked them without question and did not care who got hurt along the way. All so he could capture and possibly harm her monk.

'_My monk'_. She repeated this in her mind, shooting the said Fire Lord warning glances he did not seem to be affected by at all. It was all futile.

It was pointless because he wasn't paying her any attention, or anyone else in the vicinity for that matter. They all were on the porch, glancing out to the sea from the newly renovated house on Ember Island. _His_ house, she corrected, feeling slightly peeved as she remembered this.

Sokka was too busy 'talking' to Suki. She didn't even know where Mai and Toph had gone, nor did she much care given her distraction and worry over a far more pressing matter.

_Zuko _was currently pouring all his attention on Aang. _Her_ Aang. She thought this once again maliciously, hoping the firebender would feel the glare she was boring into the back of his skull. It had no effect. The pair leaned over the railing of the deck and chatted to one another in only their swimming gear and untied robes. The rest of the group were fully dressed, having exhausted themselves and changed from swimming much earlier than they had.

The sun was currently setting, and the scene she was observing looked ridiculously romantic. Two attractive young people laughing and talking against the backdrop of a sunset.

_'Excuse me while I barf.' _She though dryly, the internal voice bizarrely sounding a lot like Mai.

Momo was currently sitting on Aang's shoulder but let Zuko scratch his head quite contentedly. '_The traitor'._

If he'd been a Water Tribe man rather than Fire Nation she probably wouldn't be so suspicious about his intentions, but Katara wondered if that would have simply made her incredibly naïve. _Aang_ was the naïve one in their relationship, in her opinion. Not to mention everyone else. How could they not notice the glances of the firebender? She saw them all, and those were the ones he dared to show when she, Aang's _girlfriend_ was _present_. She didn't want to think of what he did when they were alone, times which Katara tried to keep it to a minimum. Which was more difficult then she realised. In business terms, sometimes the Avatar and the Fire Lord had to be alone, and sometimes they even wanted to be alone when it came to their friendship.

_'They're just friends Katara'. _

It sounded like Aang now, which was oddly comforting. For a moment. However the sound of Zuko's chuckling and his unsubtle glancess at Aang's robe soon meant the anger began to rise once more.

Although both boys also liked to hang out with Sokka, her brother was often preoccupied, usually with his girlfriend's lips. Toph seemed to have taken to hanging out with Mai more often, much to Katara's confusion.

Zuko was hardly subtle or charismatic. He was a deep down bumbling dork if a powerful man. He was too obvious in his feelings. He was somewhat like Aang if only with a larger temper and strange, dry sense of humour.

Still he laughed loudest and smiled widest with Aang. Aang made him happy, very happy. Especially for someone whose teen years had been less than filled with laughter.

Maybe he was _too_ happy.

Fire Nation court and relationships were a whole different ball game compared to her own Tribe's customs.

If she was honest, her own element was riddled with archaic homophobia in both poles. There was no technical law against it perhaps, but it was more of a cultural pressure than anything legally binding. Still, any man or woman stepping out of heterosexuality could find themselves ostracised.

That wasn't so here. Both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation laughed at such nonsense. True in more backwards villages, some pressure could be felt, but by and large it was more or less accepted as being perfectly normal. If anything, the fact Azulon himself had tried to outlaw homosexuality only helped cement this viewpoint.

He believed that it would produce more soldiers, or at least that had been his claim (although some suspected his father's own obsession with some unknown man which had ruined his parent's marriage had been the real reason). It thus meant that such ideas particularly left a bad taste in the mouth for the Fire Nation. It brought back bad memories in many cases. It was one of the first of the old domestic laws Fire Lord Zuko had struck from the record.

Although this was a good thing for him to do, it only added to Katara's suspicions. She knew it was stupid, you didn't have to be anything other than straight to care for social justice but...

All those times he'd asked Aang to simply be with him, the slight hints of desperation in his tone when he talked to him. Sometimes Katara was sure that in his letters to Aang there was more in them than at first glance. He always more or less hinted (blatently) that he wanted Aang there without really saying it.

Aang thought he just was stressed out. He just needed a friend to distract him and cheer him up. Like him. That's what he'd told Katara at any rate.

Surely she had not been the only one to have suspicions. Perhaps she should talk to Mai. But how did one even bring that up? _'Hey, your boyfriend is best friends with mine, do you think that they want to bang each other? Yours especially?'_

She really didn't think. It didn't help that she was all too aware of Aang's sexuality. She'd at first comforted herself with the fact that she knew Aang liked girls. She was _well_ aware of this.

But then Aang had mentioned that sex had simply been, well _sex_ to the Air Nomads, and that as long as it didn't become your whole life and become a block to enlightenment, the monks weren't particularly bothered whether you decided to spend time with a man or a woman. In fact technically the Avatar was usually bisexual like he was, as in spirit he was both man and woman. Avatar Kyoshi herself had loved a woman and he knew of the Firebender before Roku had loved a man while being one himself.

Katara had been shocked and her face was clearly read but the airbender had merely smiled:

"I do prefer girls a bit more I guess, but you know how it is. I just happened to fall in love with a beautiful girl like you this time around. Guess I got lucky huh?"

And despite herself, she had blushed back and returned his kiss eagerly.

Perhaps she was just being paranoid, but it was just… something she couldn't put her finger on. Air and fire simply fitted comfortably in a way _she_ wasn't comfortable with at all. Water and Air meant power and anything from hurricanes to simple sea breezes. But fire heated air; and air fed fire. They danced around each other in a way the other elements could not.

But Aang was faithful. Zuko was more debateable perhaps. But Aang was not the type to cheat. He _loved_ her. And a part of her almost took strange comfort in the fact that even in some other world where she had been a confused man, oppressed by customs for a different reason, he likely still would have loved her.

"Well I'm going to go swimming again!" Aang said rather airily, interrupting her thoughts. Sokka and Suki ignored him, content with their own company.

Katara scrutinised Zuko as Aang removed his long robe, hung loosely on his frame, still slightly damp from their earlier escapades.

Despite herself, Katara was distracted too. At sixteen, Aang now rivalled Zuko in terms of height, and he would eventually out grow him. His lithe yet muscular frame as a result of years of training was now quite a sight to behold.

And it was _hers._ Zuko had to know that. And he did know that. So what if he stared? She told herself. He probably could look but he could never touch. Not _really_ touch. That was her right. _Her _right.

"I'll-I'll come with you!" the Fire Lord blustered when the words finally reached his mouth.

Once again, Katara was the only one who really noticed. Aang merely smiled broadly and before she could say anything both were racing towards the surf, towards _her_ element.

She gazed at them as both the sounds of splashing and Aang's cries of laughter only grew. She could hear Zuko's own softer and slightly more controlled mirth if she really tried. A part of her almost wanted to laugh too in bitterness.

So typical for her to be in a love triangle with two men and have one of the men be in the middle.

--

_A/N: I'm a big fan of kataang and zukaang. Decided to do something a little less fluffy and bit more depressing regarding this latter ship, a question only sometimes asked- what about Katara? Ah the beauty and tragedy and near canon-ness of the Katara-Aang-Zuko triangle with Aang in the middle is too wonderful to ignore sometimes. I could suspect that Zuko could fall for someone like Aang and Katara would catch on before Aang would- just because she took so long to realise Aang doesn't mean she couldn't notice it elsewhere. _

_After all, Zuko needs love and friendship for so long on the show, and Aang IS love in its entirety._


End file.
